Southampton FC have announced that their retail operation will be shutting down for a short though unspecified period of time due to issues with an external third party, read on for more details.

Saints have announced on their official website the need to shut down both online operations as well as their retail outlets, due to ongoing issues with Elite Sports Group, the external third party who manage the retail side of things for not only Southampton FC but a number of other clubs.

Although this is said not to be a long term issue, it does mean that all sales of merchandise will cease for a short period.

A look online shows Elite Sports Group to be "the Exclusive Brand Partner of Danish Football brand Hummel. We activate Bespoke kit programmes for all our clubs, and also manage some of our clubs retail and online operation."

They also seem to provide other merchandise for club's that are not related to the branded playing kit and training gear.

This seems to suggest that the problem for Saints will be stock, although they will have a supply of merchandise, how much of a stock they have and indeed who owns the stock could be open for debate, when it runs out it will take time to source new suppliers etc and that could mean that the lucrative Xmas market could be missed.

The full statement reads as follows

"The club was recently made aware of significant business and fulfilment challenges being experienced by our external third-party retail partner, Elite Sports Group, who manage the online and physical retail operation of a number of clubs, including ours.

We have been working with Elite Sports Group to fully understand what those challenges are and how we might minimise any disruption for our fans. However, following further developments today, we have taken the difficult decision to end our partnership with them.

This decision allows us to proceed with our contingency plan, but will unfortunately result in the unavoidable closure of our online and physical stores for a short period of time.

We will communicate further once we have confirmed timings for reopening our retail stores, and more information on how we can ensure existing orders are fulfilled. However, in the meantime, any fans who are concerned about existing orders can contact retail@saintsfc.co.uk.

With Black Friday sales and the Christmas shopping period upon us, we recognise the importance of this time of year for supporters wanting to purchase gifts and are doing all we can to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We thank all our fans for being patient at this time and apologise for any inconvenience."

Photo: Action Images

saintmark1976 added 21:29 - Nov 21 S F C manage to get into a position where they are unable to sell merchandise at the most lucrative time of the year for them. Utterly pathetic. It makes me wonder if they really do want to be a Premiership outfit.
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A1079 added 23:00 - Nov 21 However they dress this up this is a huge own goal by the club. To get to a position where you are unable to make your marketing promotions and sales available during arguably the most lucrative time of the year, when parents and families will be intending or were intending to buy gifts for their children, grandchildren etc looks wholly and totally unprofessional.
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SaintNick added 09:05 - Nov 22 I think you are being a bit overdramatic here, lets be honest in simple terms the club has done a bisiness with a reputable company that has suddenly been able to fulfil it's obligations and therefore has left them in the lurch, it happens all the time a company in financial trouble doesn't tell you it is in trouble before it is too late and you are then left in the lurch both in terms of supplies and also goods. If you are a normal company aside from how much money you owe, its usually not a problem, you just find a new supplier, but for a football club it is different, you are getting everything bespoke, because of the fact that you trademark your name and club badge, there isn't another company out there who can supply the demand from stock, you have to start from scratch. Clearly the club have become unaware of the situation and took the decision to part company with Elite Sports Group with five weeks still to go to Xmas, that will allow them to get some things manufactured, the real issue is who holds the stocks of Hummell gear, Elite Sports Group of Hummell themselves. Clearly those who just blame the club out of hand for this don't understand the situation, back in March the company published it's profits and were still making a profit despite decreasing turnover during the Covid pandemic, something has happened in the last couple of months that has led the club to terminate the contract, which could be a number of things. On the face of it ESG have been a reputable company and we are not the only club they deal with, perhaps we will find out the exact details soon.

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A1079 added 10:44 - Nov 22 You are right Nick. I don't understand the situation, I don't understand how the club or any football club for that matter runs its finances or contractual agreements etc, I don't pretend to know and probably never will unless I am fortunate enough to ever get a job within the club that would place me in a position of understanding it. All I am saying (perhaps not very eloquently) from a customer perspective it is not a good look at arguably a key time of the year for selling mechandise and it is not as if it is the only issue they have had with promoting or selling merchandise. Personally, it makes no difference to me as the last thing I purchased from the shop was a new scarf about 12 months ago!

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saintmark1976 added 13:40 - Nov 22 Nick, as always in your haste to defend the club’s owners and management whatever the circumstances, you once again appear to engage in writing absolute nonsense. “ the club has done a bisiness with a reputable company that has suddenly been able to fulfil its obligations “. If that were the case then S F C would not have a problem would they ? “ Clearly the club have become unaware of the situation “. How exactly do you become unaware of any situation? A1079 is entirely correct in that not being in a position to profit from sales during the Black Friday and run up to Christmas is a monumental own goal however you try and dress it up.

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wessexman added 11:00 - Nov 23 Cannot get away from the fact that the timing stinks....just over a month before Christmas. Difficult not to be cynical. Worrying to say the least.
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LoisDeem added 15:12 - Nov 29 So where best to get your Saints related merchandise? How can the club not take some of the blame for this, when each time we get a new shirt sponsor /provider /manufacturer SFC drop all their eggs into the the latest shiniest basket?Despite themselves Saints have had some reasonable merchandise through the years, in amongst their slavish commitment to the whoever the latest paymasters are. Cliche alert: all that's wrong with football when the 'sponsor' dictates to the club who dictate to the fans. This shines through most other of Saints activities and outlets too. We've all taken a hit down the years with this misguided commercial loyalty -at the expense of our pocket -and good taste too. Respect too to UI -when I expect to find out first on here when Saints do get their retail act together. Don't know about the other departments, but the Sales Prevention arm of the club appears to be in full swing and thriving again.

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